Bound
by EwanMcGregorIsMyHomeboy12
Summary: Series of progressive one-shots of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker's time spent as master and apprentice before the onset of the Clone War. Explores their growing bond, their connection through the force, their inherit conflict, and the strength of the ties that bind. Rated T for violence in later chapters, and situations with other characters. Not slash
1. Alone

Obi-wan could hear whispers follow him as he moved through the temple. Too long glances, sideways gazes, and always an air of quiet conversations moved around him. He had been back only a week or so from Naboo, attending the parade that had secured peace for both the Naboo and the Gungans, and already he felt estranged. He and Anakin were preparing for their trip to Ilum to get the boys lightsaber, and for Obi-wan to construct his new one, and in their days prior, the pair had bene separated.

The Jedi Council had called for several meetings with Obi-wan, attempting to deter him from going to Ilum so quickly, trying to hold off on Anakin's getting a real lightsaber until he was better suited to life in the temple. Obi-wan had realized that on their first day here, the voices that were seeming to follow him were ten times as worse for Anakin. The child was separate from his new Master, spending long hours in the archive rooms of the temple to learn all he needed to know before their journey.

Anakin knew the other Padawan, and younglings waiting to become Padawans were talking about him. He had gone down to the library to find Anakin for lunch only yesterday, and had seen a group of them talking, looking over at him as he looked through thousands of Holofiles to find was he needed. They had stopped when Obi-wan came in, pretending to be engrossed in their studies, but as he moved where they though he was out of earshot, he heard the murmur resume.

"Sith-Killer" was a common phrase he heard whispered, "Why did Skywalker get him? Someone else should have gotten someone that powerful." Each time he felt a twinge of discomfort. His duel with Darth Maul had spread through the temple rapidly, and Jedi Masters that he had never known to even glance at him eyed him with a sort of auspicious appraisal. Younglings, when he would pass through their training rooms, would grow quiet with aw. One time, a small girl had asked him the story, but he had refused, citing an imaginary appointment as the reason.

He walked down the corridors now, searching for his apprentice. Easy enough to find with his force signature, powerful and unrestrained by any form of training. He was not in the archives today, Obi-wan could feel a pull towards the flight area. Yesterday, after Anakin had come to dinner and collapsed, exhausted in front of him, he had not known what to say.

Obi-wan was many things, an expert on children was not one of them. Especially when that child happened to be the chosen one, one not raised in the temple, one with strong ties to his mother in the outer rim, and one who, like himself, was still reeling from Qui-Gon's death. Finally, after watching Anakin poke at his fruit for almost ten minutes, he had offered to let him pick out the ship they would fly.

"You mean it?" Anakin said, his short Padawan braid flying around his shoulder excitedly. "I mean…" His face had scrunched up looking for the right words. "I would like that, Master Obi-wan." Obi-wan had tried not to laugh, being able to contain it to a small smile instead.

"Of course." You can go down to the flight deck tomorrow and put in the order." Anakin had spent the rest of dinner in a buzzing state of excitement, speaking rapidly, and only remembering to throw in his formalities long after his thoughts had been finished. But Obi-wan had let him, glad that for the first time since Qui-Gon's death, that his apprentice had something to be happy about.

And Obi-wan saw him now, much to the chagrin of the elderly maintenance worker, fiddling with the underbelly of a ship. Obi-wan glanced at it, knowing the ship fit the entire list of qualifications he had given Anakin the night before. What the boy was doing to it, however, remained to be seen.

"Master!" He heard Anakin shout, and a pair of blue eyes, split by a thick black grease mark, appeared form under the ship. "This one is perfect."

"What are you doing to it?" Obi-wan ran a hand through his beard, he hadn't shaved since the funeral, and had decided he quite liked the look o fit on his face. He looked less like a Padawan, and more like a knight that way, especially with his hair still so short.

"Grallo said there was a problem with the hyper-drive leaking, so I'm taking a look at it." He said, his voice muffled by what sounded like a large crash coming from it.

"I tried to stop him, Master Jedi." Grallo spoke, his tongue flitting nervously out along his lips. His amphibious features held a look of serious concern, and Obi-wan didn't blame him. Anakin was a nine-year old boy, not the typical repair crew for hyper drives. "This ship has been out of commission for months, I offered him a different cruiser."

Obi-wan resisted the urge to sigh, instead choosing to wait as he heard more rattling and something black leak out from underneath the ship. "Master Obi-wan?" Anakin's head peaked out again, "Would you mind doing me a favor?" Obi-wan waited, "Would you check and see what the ship says. It looks all fixed from here."

"That won't be necessary, we have plenty of fine ships." Grallo was protesting as Anakin climbed out from under the ship, his light beige tunic smeared filthy black with what Obi-wan hoped was grease and not some sort of radioactive fluid. But Anakin's face was pleading, and so Obi-wan stepped onto the boarding ramp to check the monitors.

He could hear Anakin arguing with the maintenance man, telling him that there was no reason they shouldn't use this perfectly good ship, and as Obi-Wan powered up the hyper drive reader, he realized he was right. All signs indicated that the repairs had worked, and they were now working perfectly.

He stepped back down the ramp to the arguing pair. "Good job, Anakin." Grallo looked ready to quit, swiping the wrench Anakin had used back from him and shuffling away, his tongue still flicking nervously. "Thanks!" Anakin wiped his hands on his tunic, adding an extra set of dark brown handprint stains to the already destroyed fabric. "Master Obi-wan." He added as a dutiful afterthought. "IT wasn't broken really, just a few things were loose is all."

Obi-wan looked down at them, feeling the living force surrounding Anakin, and stroked his beard again in what was now becoming a habit. "Why don't we go get you some new clothes?" He said, and Anakin nodded his head, "You can tell me about our ship, I suppose. Our trip has been moved up by two days, so we'll only be here tomorrow and then we'll be on Ilum."

Obi-wan felt the spike of happiness in Anakin's force signature, as he walked behind apprentice, shortening his strides to let Anakin lead them down the hall to the place where the robes were available to be picked up. He saw other Master and Padawan pairs walk by them, looking at him with intrigue, taking in the grimy appearance of Anakin and curling their lips slightly. He chose to ignore them, putting a hand on Anakin's shoulder as he continued to jabber about the finer points of their cruiser, blissfully oblivious (or at least his master hoped).

Obi-wan had realized something, only days back into their journey: if he and Anakin were going to do this, make it through this as stronger men and stronger Jedi: they were going to have to do it alone.


	2. The Ice Caves of Ilum: Obi-wan

His apprentice had left him at the beginning of the caves of Ilum, following his own force path after he had gone through the meditation and ritual steps of the Guardian with him. Anakin had been eager to get started, and knowing they needed time to explore the ice caves on their own, Obi-wan hadn't bothered to slow him down. He himself was wondering through the caves, only the gentle pull of the force moving him through the indistinguishable halls of ice.

He was surrounded by the force in ways that he hadn't felt in a long time. When he and Maul and Qui-Gon had fought, he had felt the strong push of the force, but at that time it had been a warring buzz in the back of his head, the dark side surrounding the Sith, the light surrounding his master. Here, it was all a gentle glow, moving him forward through the caves towards what he knew would be his new lightsaber crystal. He, unlike Anakin, was armed now, his Master's old lightsaber clipped to his belt. But since he had killed Maul with it, he had no desire to use it, and had not activated it.

He moved through the deep caves, knowing that all around him were crystals, green and blue glints of light that held nothing for him, deep purple crystals that were even more rare than the few dotted red crystals that were incased in the ice. He remembered his first trip through the cave as a youngling, how intimidating it had all seemed. But that was ages ago, long before he had dealt with any of the memories that plagued him now.

His greatest fear then had been not being chosen as a Padawan. Thinking of the dark side surges, of Qui-Gon's dying breath leaving his body, of the child that was exploring the cave opposite him, he wished that were still the case.

He was getting close, he could feel a warmth emanating from the end of the cave he approached, and knew his crystal would be at the end of it. He wondered briefly if it would be blue again, or perhaps green like his own master's, or even purple. He doubted it would be purple, only two Jedi he had ever seen had purple lightsabers: Master Windu, his friend Siri Tachi who would soon be knighted.

He saw it then, glowing softly behind a few bricks of ice. He let out a slow breath that seemed to freeze and hang in the air above him. He knew, having been through this as a youngling, what was supposed to happen now. And surely, he could feel the surges in the force, swelling up around him, surrounding the crystal and blocking his path while at the same time beckoning him towards it.

As a child, he had seen visions of his own failures, every challenge he had faced and lost. He supposed he expected the same now. But as he approached his new kyber crystal, he could feel something stronger coming for him. As he stared, the ice seemed to transform, to take on indiscernible faces and shapes that he couldn't identify.

He heard, pressing against the back of his mind, enough whispers that they felt like someone shouting. He kept moving forward, his feet moving as every nerve fiber in his body told him not to, to stay rooted to the spot as what started as voices began materializing.

He knew better than to react when he saw Qui-Gon's death. He expected maybe to relive that moment, watching Qui-Gon fall to what would shortly be death. He swallowed the knot that built up inside of him, but when his master rose, the saber hole in him burning clear in Obi-wan's vision, he finally froze, his crystal momentarily forgotten. The whispers grew, his old master's face twisted into a sick smile, and Obi-wan could hear his voice. _Failure._ He tried to catch all of the words that Qui-Gon was saying, but couldn't do it, no matter his focus. _You have failed me Obi-wan._ And then the voice stopped, and in a sudden rush, all Obi-wan could feel was pain. He fell to his knees, not even registering the hard hit against the ice for his knees. His master's face warped almost immediately into that of Darth Maul, his features twisted and cruel as Obi-wan's blood felt like it was on fire.

 _You hate me, don't you?_ The voice was clear, though Obi-wan could not see it coming from Maul's mouth, he knew it was him speaking. _Use your hate, your anger, Obi-wan. Embrace the dark side of the force._

"Never." He managed to spit out, his ribs feeling like they were cracking against his lungs to keep his words at bay. And the Maul's face in front of him twisted in shock, in pain, as Obi-wan saw a shadow of himself slice him in half. Only now, the blade he held was not the green of his master's or the blue of his own, it was brilliant red that cast light on the only part of his shadow he could make out, cold, soulless eyes.

 _But you already have._ It was his own voice now, speaking to him indistinctly, and never in his life had he heard anything more tempting. Played in his mind were his memories of his murder of Darth Maul, of the power that his pure rage had given him. Tempting him to what he wasn't sure, but he wanted to follow it wherever it might take him. The dark Obi-wan reached out its hand, going to help him rise from the floor, and his entire body, writhing in some form of agony, told him to do take it. If he took it the burden of his commitment to the Order, of training Anakin to be a Jedi, his guilt of losing his master, would be gone. This pain would disappear.

But he resisted its pull, pushing his hands against the ground and raising himself to stand, catching the glint of his crystal in the distance, still glowing and waiting for him to retrieve it. The dark Obi-wan struck out with its red blade, moving to cut him down, but he stepped through it, and instantly the pain vanished. He let out a heavy breath, his lungs wrenching in cold air, and he stepped forward to hold the warm crystal in his hand. _It is not too late._ He whipped around, sure the voice had come to his ears and not form his mind this time, to see a dark, hooded figure at the entrance of the cave. _It is not too late for you, Obi-wan._ As he stepped toward them, they pulled back the hood, revealing a face Obi-wan knew, or at least, he would know. It was Anakin, only years older, his face scarred, his eyes yellow. _It is not too late for us. The dark side can help you. Can help us both._ He walked towards the apparition, determined to push through it. As he came closer, it began to fade into the mist. He pushed through it, finally back into the chasm of ice caves that would take him back to the front.

 _Do not fail me, Obi-wan._


	3. The Ice Caves of Ilum: Anakin

Anakin pulled his short Jedi robe tighter around his body, letting out a long breath of air that seemed to almost freeze in front of him. He was regretting not paying more attention to Obi-wan when they had first come in: maybe he had said something about how to find his crystal that he hadn't heard. Anakin wasn't sure what Master Obi-wan expected though, before they had come here, he had never seen snow before, and never, not on Tatooine, not on Naboo, not in his brief stay on Coruscant, had Anakin ever been this cold.

But as he walked, he understood what his new master had said about this place. He felt the energy coming from the walls, it seemed to reach out to his fingertips, to curl through his bones and around his body. It was pure energy, not the exciting, buzzing energy he felt when podracing, or when he had destroyed the droid carrier on Naboo. It was calming, something soothing that for the first time quieted the excitement that seemed to always be swirling around in his brain.

He moved through the caves, trying to reach out with the force as Obi-wan had instructed. He sighed and pulled his robes tighter, to be honest, he wasn't exactly sure how that was supposed to work. That was one of the most infuriating things about his life as a Jedi, all of the others, the Padawan's, the knights, the masters, even the younglings, seemed to be perfectly in tune with their force abilities. He could feel its power surging through him, feel the strength it gave him when training or flying, but physically using it, and especially meditating on it was difficult. The second most infuriating thing was Obi-wan's ability to meditate for what felt like hours, never moving, never speaking, never acknowledging Anakin.

Unless by some miracle of patience, Anakin managed to find his simple force connection, he would usually, within about half an hour of sitting, open his eyes to see Obi-wan deep in his meditative state. He would watch him master, trying to imitate the relaxed, emotionless state of his features. It never worked. Instead, despite the fact that he knew that Obi-wan would know he had gotten up, he would start to wonder around their apartment, fiddling with the mechanics pieces he collected on his trips through the temple. He would hear Obi-Wan sigh, and shortly after, he would be done tinkering with the droid parts and the pair of them would move somewhere else through the temple.

He stopped now, his frustration mounting. The entire cave looked the same! It was just endless chasms of thick plated ice. He felt himself becoming frustrated, his mind buzzing as he tried to reach out with the force. He thought back to all Obi-wan had bene trying to tell him, and let out a long breath. If he relaxed, if he was calm, maybe he would feel it. He tried to let go of the fear he held about not being able to find his crystal at all.

He let it go, breathing it out, and for the first time, felt something pulling him forward, into a division of caves that had looked dark and ominous beforehand. His eyes opened, he moved forward down the walls, and for the first time, he could see the faint glows of blue, green, purple, and red were incased in the ice around him. They hummed with life, with heat and energy, but not caught the glow he knew he was supposed to be searching for. And even now, surrounded by crystals, he felt the force pull him down another hallway.

And he saw it, small glint against the clear cuts of ice. Only a few feet away. He smiled against the cold, pure joy running through him. He could be a Jedi after all. He stepped forward to grab it, and the ice cave around him faded.

The cold, too, seemed to evaporate where he stood, instead the hot, dry suns of Tatooine, the desert wind blowing through his now short hair came to his mind. He was in Mos Eisley. Though no shapes came to mind, no forms except that of his mother, standing in front of him, and behind her, tall, and alive, was Qui-Gon Jinn.

His heart soared, he wanted to race to them, but something in the force held him back. His own body would not move, and he wanted to cry in frustration. He tried to move his legs, but they seemed rooted to the glassy floor, and as he watched, his mother began to frown. _Come here, Ani. Come on._

"I'm trying." He wanted to yell, but even as he tried again to move, she began to fade into the background of his image. And as he watched, Qui-Gon began to fall into the lifeless form he had seen of him as Obi-wan had carried him out of the hangar on Naboo. _Why couldn't you save me, Anakin? He_ heard Qui-Gon ask as the form of his body fell to the ground _. If you are so powerful, why could you not save me?_

And both vanished in a swirl of almost magic, Anakin thought, and the calming effect the cave had had on him disappeared with them. Instead, he could feel a buzzing rushing through his blood, like it was a part of him all along. He kept his eyes on the crystal, and his legs, no longer too heavy to move, jerked forward, carrying him to it. But as he stepped forward, and reached out his hand, Obi-wan appeared in front of him.

 _You disappoint me, Anakin_. The Obi-wan said. Anakin froze, and looked up into his master's eyes. They were not kind, or strained with patience as they had been recently. They were cold, calculating, cruel. _I never should have taken you as my apprentice._

He wanted to protest, but as he had done with his mother, he had nothing to say in his own defense. The words would not come to him, the cold bit again into his skin as Obi-wan blocked his way to his crystal, its light seeming to fade the longer he stood there.

 _I didn't want you to begin with_. Obi-wan continued, his voice sharp and condescending. _Another Padawan would have been better. You are too weak_. Anakin could feel tears come to his eyes, and freeze there like his breath had. His bit his lip, trying his best to strengthen his resolve, and in a last, desperate attempt, thrust a hand through the form of his master and fastened his fingers around the crystal.

Instantly, it vanished, the buzzing ceased, and a warmth spread through his hand. He looked around, watching to see if anything else was coming for him, before, with a speed he didn't know he possessed, he ran back towards the entrance of the caves.

There he found Obi-wan, perched on a rock, meditating quietly, Master Qui-Gon's lightsaber placed next to him. Anakin knew that a good apprentice would not disturb him, but he felt his anger boil up at all of the things the apparition of Obi-wan had said to him, and he realized he was desperate to leave this place. "Did you find your crystal?" Obi-wan spoke before Anakin had the chance to interrupt him.

"Yes." He said, reaching down to feel it in his pocket. "Master Obi-wan." He added, again as an afterthought. "Can we go?" To his relief, Obi-wan stood, reclipping the lightsaber to his belt.

"Of course." He stood next to Anakin for a moment, and Anakin waited on him to do something. Put a hand on his shoulder maybe, or ask to see the crystal he had found. But as usual, Obi-wan was impossible to read, and did neither. "It is time to make your lightsaber."

Anakin, following his master, smiled. Despite everything that had happened, despite his visions and fears, had found his crystal. Surely that mean he was supposed to be a Jedi after all.


	4. Old Friends

Anakin could feel the sweat beading off of his face, dampening the short spikes of his hair. He tested his foot, using the weight shift to push forward and spin another strike against his opponent. The older boy was thrown back off balance, the pale red glow of his training saber shining too close to his face. Ferus, Anakin remembered, his name was Ferus.

And he was talented. He regained his balance almost instantly, and parried Anakin's next strike that would have scored him a point on the reader. Anakin was Knight Tachi's Padawan, and she was standing in here now, talking to Master Obi-Wan, watching the pair of them fighting. Anakin liked Knight Tachi, she was funny, smart, and almost as good as Obi-Wan at lightsaber fighting. Ferus, on the other hand, had to be the most uptight person that Anakin had ever met. Even more than Obi-wan.

Like, right now, Anakin could see him going over the lightsaber techniques in his head, when he had had an opportunity to swing and catch Anakin almost off guard. Instead, he swung low with eh training saber, and Anakin blocked it easily, moving back on the offensive. It wasn't that Anakin disliked Ferus, he honestly didn't think there was much to him to begin with, let alone to dislike. He seemed to be a walking datapad, who insisted on following every rule he'd ever thought existed.

Whereas Anakin, who scored another point tapping Ferus on the shoulder, had learned to bend the rules a bit. Since he had gotten his real lightsaber almost three months ago, he had taken to spending his nights where he wasn't doing temple exercises with Obi-Wan in the lower levels of Coruscant, shopping for spare parts to work on different contraptions that were beginning to fill his and Obi-wan's apartment.

He resumed his dueling stance: the typical stance of Shien, while Ferus took the stance of Seruso that Anakin was used to seeing from Obi-wan. Only this time, Ferus came at him quickly, and Anakin could feel the frustration rolling off of him through the force, his black hair slick to the sides of his head with sweat, his usually serious eyes somewhat unbalanced as he struck out again at Anakin. And Anakin knew why, Ferus was older, had more training, and if Anakin scored one more time, he would win.

Anakin parried his attacks, moving backwards to force Ferus to follow him. The older boy did, his swings becoming a little wilder as compared to Anakin's. Anakin wanted to grin, but he knew Obi-wan would disapprove, so he held it in, and blocked Ferus' last strike before tapping him again on the shoulder to win the match.

The older boy hung his head down in defeat, retracting his lightsaber. He looked at Anakin for a minute before extending his head. "Good fight." Anakin took it.

"Yeah, good fight." He walked away to put the training saber back on the rack and pick up his own. It felt much better in his hand, evenly weighted, and easy to swing. IT felt warm in his fingers, despite the fact that he hadn't been holding it.

"You did well." IT was Master Tachi, standing behind him and Ferus, who was also returning his lightsaber. "You lost your patience, Ferus. Keep it and you might do better next time."

"Your Padawan doesn't fight like you, Obi-wan." She spoke to Obi-wan, who had come up behind his Padawan. "He might actually get better at it." She winked down at Anakin, who couldn't help but grin back. Ferus looked as pink as his training saber. She put her hand on his shoulder. "Come on Ferus, let's go get lunch." She looked back over at Anakin and Obi-wan. "You two want to join us?" She flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder.

Anakin wanted to speak, but forced himself, looking at Ferus' slightly smug face, bit his tongue and waited on Obi-wan to speak. "That sounds nice. What do you think, Anakin?"

"Yeah!" Anakin liked Siri. He was happy to have Obi-wan as his master, and would be forever grateful to him for training him, but it was nice to have an older Jedi who wasn't so serious all the time. "Master Obi-wan." He added after a hard stare from Ferus.

And so they started off down the hall, Anakin falling into step behind Obi-wan and Siri, and next to Ferus, who had run his fingers through his hair to fix it. Ferus didn't seem like he wanted to talk, so Anakin instead chose to focus on his Master and Siri's conversation. They were talking about Siri's experiences on the pirate brigades, where Anakin had first met her. And she had kicked Obi-wan back into a ship to keep him from blowing her cover, and together, she and Anakin had fought a slaver named Krayn.

He had admired her since then, for helping ending slavery, helping him find his way. And hearing her talk about it now with Obi-wan was interesting. Anakin had taken a habit of trying to figure out what Obi-wan was feeling by watching for subtle changes in his face. A light frown, a raise of his eye brows. If Obi-wan wasn't speaking, it was usually hard to tell what he was thinking, but now, talking to Master Tachi, he was smiling open mouthed, sometimes laughing at what she said as they all four got food and drinks in the cafeteria. To Anakin, it was fascinating.

They kept talking, even after they had all sat down, so Anakin had no choice but to talk to Ferus. "Hey, does something seem different about them to you?" He said casually, poking at his Muja fruit salad.

"What do you mean?" Ferus was sipping his water carefully, and glanced over at their masters, witting across from each other next to them, seemingly oblivious to their conversation.

"I don't know," Anakin said as he heard his master's quiet laugh again, "Obi-wan's actually smiling."

"It is rare for him." Siri responded, her intense blue eyes looking over at Anakin and Ferus who was mid-bite. Anakin felt his face turn red, and could feel Obi-wan's stare at him. "He's always been that way."

"I have not," Obi-wan protested, and raised one eyebrow at him.

"You know, he's right, Obi-wan has always been a real joker. Ever since I've known him." She said thoughtfully, raising a piece of kale up on her fork. "I can even remember the time he stole a speeder and crashed it into a lower level dumpster on a dare and then turned himself in to the Council."

Anakin snorted, and even Ferus had to laugh a bit. Obi-wan did not look amused, but Anakin had watched his face enough to know that he wasn't really angry as she recounted the story in all of its details. He could hardly picture a lot of it happening, imagining Obi-wan tripping into a speeder was funny enough, but the fact that was Obi—wan made it even more hilarious. Obi-wan, who couldn't even stand to have a wrinkle in his robes, Obi-wan, who changed socks four times on their last mission because they got wet. It was fun to picture Obi-wan that way.

When the story was over, the two masters went back to a different conversation.

"I sense something." Ferus said, almost mouthing it so they wouldn't notice.

Anakin reached out with the force, and he could feel it too, between his master and master Tachi. A new feeling, foreign to him. It made him think of something, a place with trees and water, the smell of some kind of floral perfume and thick make-up, and a gentle voice that he couldn't place. He nodded at Ferus, finishing his fruit and choosing to ignore it.


	5. News and New Friends

"Hey, what's your name?" Anakin whipped around, happy his Padawan braid was short or it would have slapped him across the face. It was a girl, maybe a little older than him, but not by much. Her blonde hair hung loose, and like Anakin, she sported a small Padawan braid behind her left ear, only hers was interwoven with some kind of ribbon.

"Anakin Skywalker." He said, and couldn't help but smile back at her.

"Do you want to come sit with us?" Anakin looked over at Obi-wan, getting water at the beverage counter, and saw that his master was already looking at him and gave him a rare smile.

"Sure." He grabbed up his tray and followed the girl over to a table with her friends. One of whom, he realized, was Ferus Olin, who was quietly chewing on his vegetable sandwich. "Thanks." He sat beside her as everyone looked up at him. "What's your name?"

"Darra. And this is Tru, and Ferus." She pointed at them. Tru was a happy looking Padawan, his mouth, but he did his best to smile anyway. His hands, his tray pushed to the side, were working on a comlink.

"Hello." He said, realizing for the first time he was shy, his ear tips turning pink. "I'm Anakin Skywalker."

"You have Master Kenobi, right?" Anakin nodded, taking a bite of his fruit. He looked over at his master, who was now enjoying a conversation with Garen Muln, the pilot Jedi that had let Anakin instruct the flight simulator last week. "That must be pretty great."

"Master Kenobi is great." Anakin said, not really sure how to answer that. He knew that ever since Obi-wan had killed that Sith, there had been a lot of rumors going around the temple about his master. "What about you?"

"Soara Antana." She said, drinking something that smelled like fruit juice. "Tru's master is Ry-Gaul. Ferus' is Siri Tachi."

"I've met Ferus before," Anakin said. "So, your master's on the council?" Darra nodded, pointing at Tru to indicate the same. Anakin wondered what that must be like, if you got any special privileges, but decided it might be rude to ask. "What are you building, Tru?"

With some great force, the Padawan swallowed down the food that was left in his mouth. He grinned up at Anakin goofily, his almost white eyes flashing. "So, I may have fallen on my comlink during our last mission." He poked at it, a small spark coming from the back.

"You've been on a mission?" Anakin couldn't hid his jealousy. Except for their trip to Ilum, he and Obi-wan had been at the temple for months as Anakin learned Jedi lore, lightsaber fighting, and basic force techniques. He excelled in everything except meditation, and wished that Obi-wan would notice so they could finally go and do something exciting.

"We were monitors for trade treaty in the air space over Kashykk." He smiled again. "I saw pirates and everything!" Tru looked so excited that Anakin didn't bring up that he had seen pirates, bounty hunters, Hutts, everything at Watto's on Tatooine.

"So, how did you break your comlink?" Darra snorted, and Tru's face went red.

"When me and Master Ry-Gaul were leaving, I kind of…well I fell off the loading ramp." Anakin laughed a little, not sure if Tru would be okay with him laughing too much. "I just wish I could get it fixed."

"Here, let me see it." Tru pushed it to him, stacking their trays on top of one another to clear off space, and he could feel Ferus', Dana's, and Tru's eyes on him as he poked at it. He twisted a small wire back around its spoke and the comlink buzzed to life.

"Thanks!" Tru picked it up, looking over at the little screen. "How'd you do that?"

"I used to fix a lot of things." Anakin shrugged. Master Tachi stepped up, and Anakin could feel his own master getting closer.

"You ready to go, Ferus?" The older Padawan nodded, gathering his garbage on the tray.

"Anakin?" Obi-wan was clearly asking the same question. Anakin nodded, getting his and Tru's tray, and grabbing Dana's for good measure.

"I'm ready master." He looked down at Dana and Tru. "Could you come with us?"

"If your master's are okay with it." Anakin heard his master add as he took their trays over to the conveyor belt that sucked them inside.

When he turned back around, Dana and Tru were standing with Obi-wan and Siri who were talking again. Ferus was standing off to the side, hands on his hips, looking slightly discomforted.

"They said we could go." Dana said, and he looked over to where Master Ry-Gaul and Master Antara were watching them, smiling. "Master Kenobi said were to do some combat training."

They followed Obi-wan's brisk pace down the hall, Ferus staying in front of them as Anakin listened to Dara chatter endlessly about the last force training exercise she had done. When they got to the room, Anakin wasn't sure what he was expecting. It was a huge open room, with pieced together pillars and tiles all around the room. There were plastic exercise balls, and weights all over the room. Anakin's master took off his robe, tossing it over a set of bleachers.

"The point of the exercise is control of the force." He said slowly. "When you're fighting, there are going to be times that you cannot use your lightsaber."

"What times would that be, Master Kenobi?" Tru realized he had interrupted, but Obi-wan didn't say anything. Anakin wished he was always that lenient.

"If you're in disguise, for example, or need to subdue someone who is unarmed, or a threat to themselves." Obi-wan answered. "Mastery of the force is an easy way to accomplish this. The exercise is more complex than the simple pushes and pulls you have been learning. For a warm-up, your goal will be to move a pillar and place it on the resting place of the next one. There are four, it should work easily." Anakin looked at the pillars. They looked pretty solid.

"Those pillars don't look like they want to move," Darra said, frowning. Obi-wan moved to the center of the four pillars, and moved his hands, all four rose in the air, and he moved, each moving to its new position, locking into place on the next pedestal.

"He's amazing." Dara whispered to Anakin. Anakin had to admit, lifting all four at once, moving them like that, was awesome. It was rare that Anakin saw Obi-wan do things like that; unless he and Obi-wan were practicing lightsaber or basic techniques, he hadn't seen Obi-wan use his powers like that.

"Everyone to their pillar." Anakin, Dara, and Tru went willingly.

"Master, is there a reason I need to repeat this exercise?" Ferus asked, in a way that even Anakin would never have dared with his master.

"It's my decision what you need to do Ferus, there is more to this exercise than simply success." She sent back to him, her voice clipped. "Listen to Master Kenobi."

"I'm sorry, Master." Ferus knew he had overstepped his boundaries, and moved to the front of his pillar.

"Go ahead and try to move and lift them." Obi-wan said. "You'll have to work together to time it properly." Anakin let out a breath, trying to concentrate his power into lifting the pillar in front of him. As he watched, he could feel the force flow from his fingertips, and as he watched, the pillar started to lift. "You'll have to work as a team." Anakin lifted his pillar higher, straining. It was heavier than anything he'd had to lift before. He started to move it off of its pedestal, floating it to where Tru's pillar had started. He glanced over at Tru, whose pillar had not moved like he needed it to. He felt a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face. Finally, Tru's pillar started to move, but he couldn't hold his up anymore. He dropped it on the floor.

Master Tachi caught it before it smashed into the floor; "Patience, Anakin. You can't do this exercise by yourself." He heard his own master's voice. Tru's pillar was off of the pedestal, and he concentrated, lifting the pillar off the floor, and pushing it forward until it feel haphazardly onto the pedestal. He looked around the room. Ferus had moved the pillar onto Dara's old pillar, and Tru was about to the same with his.

But Dara was struggling. Her pillar was in the air, off of its pedestal, but she was straining. It wasn't moving, simply falling to the ground. Anakin let out a breath and concentrated on helping her lift it. She looked at him gratefully, and together, they moved it onto the platform.

"Very good, you all." Master Tachi said, as she wheeled out a car of plastic balls, just big enough for Anakin to have to use both hands to hold it. They moved into the real exercise, playing a form of dodgeball with them, not allowed to touch them at all with their bodies, only using the force to levitate and through them around the room at each other.

Anakin couldn't remember having this much fun since he had built his lightsaber with Obi-wan, especially when he Ferus couldn't stop a ball he sent at him and it smacked him full in the chest. He hadn't realized how much time had gone by until the ball eh was spinning in midair was suddenly pulled away from his by Obi-wan who was packing up the cart. Ferus, Dara, and Tru followed Siri out, the latter two waving good-bye and promising to see him at lunch the next day.

"Did you enjoy that, Anakin?" Obi-wan asked. He nodded, realizing he probably should have offered to help clean up. "I'm glad," Obi-wan looked like he had something else to say. "We've got to get ready tonight, we're leaving at the end of the week for a mission." Anakin's heart soared, following Obi-wan down the hall, his mind reeling with a thousand questions.

Their first mission! New friends, a mission. This day had been his favorite at the temple so far.


	6. First Mission

Anakin watched as Obi-wan talked to a group of bounty hunters in the corner of the bar they were at. He wanted to go over and join his master, but he had been told to stay put and watch for their suspect, a tall, gangly looking human who was injecting innocent people with a serum that caused them to slowly decay and die. Anakin doubted he would be in the corner of a sleazy bar, but since he and Obi-wan had been here for over two weeks and found no leads, they were following any leads they had.

He watched the patrons, it was late afternoon and already one man was slumped over at a booth, drooling a mix of spit and beer onto the table. Two women were drinking something the color of his lightsaber, laughing in higher and higher pitched tones as they sat and twirled on bar stools. The bartender was a male of a species Anakin didn't know, he was cleaning dirty glasses with an equally dirty rag held between one of his six fingers. He was cleaning three glasses at a time, and still had two free hands, covered in a grey sort of scaly flesh to serve drinks with.

He looked over at Obi-wan, who had bought the bounty hunters, two males and one female, a round of drinks, but had not touched his own. Anakin wondered if that was because he had seen the way the bartender was "cleaning" the glasses, or if he wanted to keep a level head. He thought back on what they knew about the mission, watching around the sides and windows of the building for the man. Sion was his name, apparently a research geneticist working on some sort of bio-weapon.

His victims were random, low-level citizens at first, but one member of the senator's extended family had been found ill and was currently dying the medcenter at the planet's capital. When he and Obi-wan had been briefed, he found it odd that Sion had chosen that member of the family when, from what they were told, he seemed to be more of a black sheep. He was almost ostracized from the family for his drinking and illicit substance habits, but Anakin also decided that was none of his business. Whatever the serum was, it was becoming more effective. When the first person had fallen ill, an amphibious male, he had survived the decaying for almost a month.

The most recent victim, a homeless female, had been discovered outside the hospital and died less than a day later. Anakin ran over the clues again and again in his head, hoping that Obi-wan was getting somewhere he wasn't. For a first mission, this wasn't necessarily going as well as Anakin had hoped, but Obi-wan promised him that some were like that and it would be worth it in the end when lives were saved. Anakin couldn't help but want some action to go with that.

He heard the faint bell ring that meant the large factory in downtown was closing for the day. He braced himself, and sure enough, minutes later, a flood of patrons came in, all wearing the overalls he had seen on many of the citizens, embellished with their names and jobs. They were a lively crew, and the bar was suddenly full of chatting, both enthusiastic and grumbling that was not so much. His view of Obi-wan was partially obscured as a group of men sat between them, the only part of his master visible was the back of his head. He was deep in conversation, and Anakin didn't have any hope he would be done soon. (Obi-wan could really talk when he wanted to).

He looked back around the bar, splashes of all sorts of alcohol going everywhere even though it was still daylight. The bar was starting to smell like the stands after a podrace, and as he looked over at the bartender, he saw he had given up even trying to clean the glasses. Then he felt something, a pricking at the base of his neck, working its way down his spine. He looked around the bar, knowing the force was sending him a warning, but his eyes could see nothing out of the ordinary. The bartender was helping customers, the bounty hunters were drinking deeply and talking to Obi-wan, the man passed out on the table was now sharing his booth with a hooded figure who held a small glass in their hands. As he saw the man, the pricking ignited into a fire and Anakin stood, trying to push his way over. The hooded figure had slipped a ring onto the man's outstretched hand, and Anakin saw something glinting in his fist as it caught light form the lamp swinging over their table. A needle.

"Hey!" He had to yell to be heard over the loud people in bar, and the man jerked around, and seeing him, scrambled from the booth and bolted towards the doorway. Anakin knew that a good Padawan would wait for their master, but if he waited for Obi-wan, he would lose him for sure, he bolted after him, trying to send Obi-wan a message through their force bond.

Once outside, it was clear the man was at an advantage' he knew the streets of his planet while Anakin was searching blindly for him. Or at least, almost blindly. He reached out with the force and let his feet carry him where his eyes could not, moving around people, food carts, and other debris as he followed the figure into the slums of the city. He willed the force to propel him faster, and the back of the man's cloak came into view, it was Sion, his long red hair peeling out behind him as he ran. As he followed him, gaining on him much too slowly for his liking, Anakin realized he must be running to hide, or to a speeder, and he had to catch him before that happened.

He steeled himself, leaping over a duracrete wall that had stalled Sion for a few precious seconds, but as he came around the other side, he almost leapt straight into a round of blaster fire. He ducked under and rolled forward, the man half turned behind him to shoot at him again. Anakin regained his footing, surging forward with his lightsaber drawn, citizens he ran by looking at him in awe as he passed them.

His lungs were starting to burn, this chase had been going on a long time, but he couldn't lose him now. He thought about how impressed Obi-wan would be if, one his first mission, he caught the criminal they were looking for. With that, an extra surge of adrenaline hit him and he took on an extra burst of speed. In seconds, he would catch him. He deflected another blaster bolt, this one straight at his face, and grinned. He could taste victory.

And then his footing was gone, with how fast he had been going, he hit the duracrete streets hard and slid forward, his lightsaber deactivated and clanking down the streets into a pile of metal scraps littering the walking path. The wind was knocked out of him as he tried to stand and realized he'd hit a trip wire. He heard the whirring of a speeder in front of him, and propped himself up on his elbows, trying to stand and suck in air at the same time, to see Sion passing blast by where he was laying on a speeder with at least half a dozen boxes that Anakin knew were full or serum strapped to the back. He stood then, calling for his lightsaber, even though he knew it would be too late to catch him, and he now had a nasty cut on his right ankle where the wire had pushed through the leather of his boot.

But ahead in the distance, he heard an unmistakable crash, the sound of groaning metal and engine exploding with flooded gasoline. He moved as fast as his tired lungs would let him, they were still aching from loss of air and his sudden fall. Ahead, he saw Obi-wan where he had wrestled the man to the ground, the prepared needle clattering across pavement, the boxes of serum spilled onto the walking paths of citizens. Anakin realized that Obi-wan must have leapt onto the speeder, and pulled Sion off of it, since it was now a useless bit of twisted metal that smoked and sputtered against the side of a building.

Obi-wan picked him up, his arms twisted around behind his back in a pair of handcuffs as the man finally decided to give up fighting. "Master..." Anakin wasn't quite sure what to say.

Obi-wan didn't say anything as a small group of authorities came up on speeders, taking the handcuffed man away, and seizing all boxes of the serum form their places on the sidewalk, as well as the plunger that the criminal had dropped when Obi-wan attacked him. When they dispersed, Obi-wan looked over at him, taking in the appearance of his filthy tunic, sliced open boot, and the blood that was smeared around the cut with his eyebrows raised.

"You did well, Anakin." Anakin's heart leapt, he hadn't expected any sort of praise for this mission, which he was almost certain Obi-wan would classify as a mess. "But do wait for me next time, before you charging off after a dangerous criminal."

Anakin blushed, "Yes, Master," as a taxi speeder came over to pick them up. In the taxi, Obi-wan didn't speak, but when to work on Anakin's leg with med wipes and bacta patches, so that by the time they reached the landing bay where there ship was waiting, he could hardly feel the cut any longer.

"If you keep ruining robes like this, the temple is going to have to ration us." Anakin flushed with embarrassment, realizing Obi-wan was right. This was his seventh set of tunics he had ruined, most with repair fluid, others with holes or burns. But as he looked up at his master, he was smiling. Anakin realized that, for the first time in a long time, Obi-wan was joking. He couldn't help but smile back at him.


	7. Obi-Wan's Lifeday: Part 1

**(A/N) Dear lawd, it's been a long time since I updated this. However, I'm back in the swing of both having time and inspiration. This one and the chapter following are a two-part thing. Will be updating more frequently. Please R and R, let me know what you think**

"What are we doing down here, Anakin?" Tru whispered behind him, compressing his lithe body through a crack behind a trash receptacle. "We're not really supposed to be in the lower levels, especially at night." Anakin knew his friend wasn't really nervous, and he didn't exactly blame him for being uncomfortable, but he had things he needed to do, and the lower levels were the only ones that would service his needs at this point. Especially since what he needed wasn't exactly easy to find. Or legal.

Obi-Wan's twenty-fifth life day was approaching, and he had been working for over a month on a small repair droid his master could fit in his pocket; one that could repair most electronic devices from a comlink to a lightsaber. But he needed the right kind of compressor. And this kind of compressor didn't exactly tend to agree with its own. In order to have enough power to boost the different chips all at once, the compressor had to be able to alternate it's power cores; a feature that tended to cause them to blow up, especially in ship engines. But he thought he could rig a small one to be perfectly safe; he only needed to get one.

"I need a T-5 compressor, and they don't sell them in the market."

"Probably because they're classified as a type III dangerous object by the Senate."

Anakin grinned over at Tru, flipping over a tube he had found in a passing rubbish bin that he thought might be useful for other projects. "You know what that means, Tru?"

Tru looked confused, and shook his head, bending his fingers back to touch his wrist. "That it could be two more levels of dangerous."

His friend laughed and followed him more easily, winding through dark streets, avoiding corners where individuals, typically covered in rings of smoke, hovered in darkness. They ducked around corners where females of all species and a few males stood covered in very few clothing, looking at them through thick-lidded eyes and pursed lips.

Anakin pushed his way into a dark store, where a range of different blaster models lined the racks. The being behind the counter was a species he couldn't quite place; blue skinned, almost jawless, staring at them with eyes that seemed to have no pupils. He was polishing a blaster of his own, metal guards bending with each of the joints on his fingers.

"This isn't a place for kids." He snarled, his eyes never wavering from them. "Unless you've got enough money."

"I need a T5 compressor." Anakin could feel the fear coming off of Tru, but he'd dealt with worse than this at Watto's shop. And on the four missions he and Obi-Wan had been on so far; they'd seen death and dealt with worse things than a sarcastic shop owner.

"Don't have one. Class III dangerous." He seemed to look them over more carefully. "Figured Jedi might know that." He stopped for a minute, and Anakin could feel him trying to make up his mind. He had one, he knew the man was lying, but he wasn't quite sure how to make him give it to him. "Get out, I don't need trouble."

"We're not here to report you," Tru said, his silver eyes turned to examine the long lines of weaponry that barely shone in the faint light coming from behind the counter. "We're just here to buy."

"You Jedi work for the Senate."

"We also work for ourselves," said Tru. "And we aren't technically Jedi, not yet."

"Yeah," said Anakin. "Which means, if you want to sell us that compressor, we don't have to report that MX16 Blaster Rifle that sure looks the one that was stolen from a Senate guard last night in one of the bars down here." He watched the man carefully, but also felt around him with the force as best he could. A slight jump in the man's demeanor confirmed his hunch.

The man said nothing, but reached underneath the table, where Anakin could hear a lock clicking, and thumped a brand new looking T5 compressor on the counter. "100 credits, little Jedi." He was not amused, that much was obvious, and Anakin could feel that it was definitely time for him and Tru to be leaving. He counted them out, most of his discretionary income for the month (but he had never spent eh full amount, he always felt he had more than enough at the temple), and slid them across the table, tucking the compressor into his belt.

"Thanks." He said, Tru nodding in agreement before they turned to leave. They stepped out of the shop, moving back to where the lift to take them back to the Temple level was waiting. But as they walked, Anakin could feel a presence following them. He looked at Tru, but it was clear that his friend had felt the same. They quickened their pace, eyes down so as not to attract attention, and Anakin began to think that perhaps his friend was right and this had been a bad idea.

"What's your hurry, Jedi?" He could hear a voice, half-expecting a man from the shop, but it was in fact not him. "Don't get many of the little ones down this far." Neither Padawan acknowledged him, but kept moving. Anakin stopped just in time to avoid running square into the chest of a massive, half-armored being in front of him. Tru was not so lucky, running head first into one, only his extreme flexibility keeping him upright.

"Got any credits, Jedi?" the voice came up behind them, and Anakin turned around. By dress, this human was a bounty hunter, his tight fitting clothes athletic and buckled to hold an assortment of weapons and accessories used in heists and quick getaways. He was eyeing Anakin like one might look at meat; drawing up rather unpleasant memories of his time on Tatooine.

He put his hand on his lightsaber, but he wasn't an idiot. Tru was still wielding a training lightsaber, and there was no way he could take on this man, as well as the two brutes behind them and now two women who had joined the group.

"You're awfully quiet." One of the women said, as heavily armed as the man in front. "He just bought a T5 compressor off of Jac, but he might have something left. You know how Jac is with money."

"We are liaisons of the Galactic Senate, let us go now and no harm will come to you." Anakin had to briefly admire Tru's bravery, but the bounty hunters did not share the same sentiment. They were instead met with a laugh.

"If you think we're scared of the Senate, baby Jedi, you've still got a lot to learn." The man reached into his sleeve. Anakin braced himself for a withdrawal of a knife, a blaster, some kind of weapon; but it was only a small metal sliver that the man let rest in between his teeth. It flicked up and down with each word he spoke, and if Anakin hadn't thought they were going to be robbed, he might have found it funny.

"Credits." He said, and extended a hand for them to place them in. Anakin looked at Tru, they hadn't come all the way down here for them to lose the compressor. If he lost it now, all of this work would have been for nothing, and to top that off, he would have nothing for Obi-Wan's life day. He took in a deep breath and drew his lightsaber.

"Well now," The woman was talking again, circling around them. "They've got lightsabers. Those'll go for a good price." She took a step around to Tru's side, examining his arm where he held a training saber in his fingers. The metal pick in the man's teeth bobbed as he smiled, pulling a blaster from the folds of his jacket.

"Give them up, little Jedi." He said, as Anakin activated his blade, the blue illuminating them, Tru doing the same with the small red one he carried. He wondered briefly, since Tru had been on missions, why he didn't have an actual lightsaber but now was not the time to wonder about it. Instead, he tried to think of a strategy, a plan that would get them out of this. He tried to calculate distances in his head like Obi-Wan always seemed to do, tried to estimate how close their landing point was, if they could leap and outrun these bounty hunters. Maybe, maybe if he could push them back, just a bit.

He reached out a hand, trying to let the force flow through it, push away this threat even as a pair of arms clamped onto his shoulders. He tried hard, trying to concentrate, slowly becoming overwhelmed by Tru's panic next to him as the Teevan was hoisted into the air. He could feel the force, hovering right on the edge of everything. He felt a hard pull on his lightsaber, and tightened his grip, concentrating his focus on the man in front of him.

To his amazement, the man, his blaster having been so close to Anakin's face, went flying sideways into the wall, growling expletives, whipping wildly around to aim his blaster at Anakin's head. Anakin tried to push again, but nothing happened. The man stood, coming closer, cursing in a language he hadn't heard. He tried to push again, but the force was conspicuously absent.

"Give. Me. Those." He took Anakin's saber from him, the blue blade disappearing . "Anakin…" He heard True whisper, they had wrestled the training saber from him. "What to do with you now?" The man snarled again, the metal point of his pick perhaps three centimeters from Anakin's face. The hands on his shoulders tightened, he heard a gasp of pain from Tru as they did the same to him.

He steeled his face, waiting; he could smell the man's breath through his teeth; could feel the anger pulsing off of him. But he refused to bow down. If they were going to shoot him, so be it; but he kept his eyes locked on the man's. Then suddenly, the brown eyes that had been locked with his vanished, and he was staring hard at what seemed to be an empty street.


End file.
